The 2010 harvest has been late but so far looks sensational. The later ripening has also had the added advantage of lower light angles and lots of great photograph opportunities. Enjoy a sampling of photos from Tablas Creek, taken between October 25th and November 5th, 2010

The end of September is a great time to walk the vineyard. Most varieties are ripe or nearly so, but most of the fruit is still on the vines. And you get a great chance to see where everything is. We're harvesting our last Grenache Blanc and Syrah this week, and our first Grenache Noir and Roussanne.
Mourvedre, Counoise, and Picpoul are still a few weeks off. But the vineyard looks great, and we're excited with 2009.

We had a break in the weather early this week, with morning fog and daytime highs in the mid-70s. The vineyard is poised for veraison, and I spent a few hours prowling around taking pictures mostly in our Grenache, Mourvedre and Vermentino blocks.

Google site search

In late 2013, I wrote a blog piece titled What Facebook's News Feed Changes Mean for the Wine Community. In it, I shared Facebook's warning to the owners of their pages that they were going to be reducing posts' organic reach, in order to prioritize friend-to-friend content over business content. Of course, page owners who wanted to reach more of their fans would be able to pay for that reach.

It's clear, a little more than a year later, that Facebook's changes are in full effect. At any given level of engagement (measured by Facebook) the percentage of our page's fans who we reach with a given post is roughly half what it was in 2013. For our image posts:

It also seems like it's getting worse. Looking at our image posts with our most common levels of engagement (11%-14%) the percent of our fans we've reached has gone down steadily each month so far in 2015:

It also seems that Facebook has changed which sorts of posts get higher reach. It used to be that images, which offer the easy opportunity for interaction through a simple click, got good reach compared to links or text posts. Our experience in recent months has been that images have been increasingly difficult to have reach a high percentage of your fans. Text posts, which are hard to interact with, are equally difficult to spread widely. Links are harder to get high engagement totals on, but it appears that when you do, Facebook gives those posts signficantly broader reach. The below post that we shared this week reached nearly 42% of our total fans, our highest total of the year, at a 14% engagement rate.

We're in good company in this picturesque piece in Palate Exposure: "Top Fifteen Wineries of Paso Robles"

Two sorts of posts appear to be easiest to get served to those who have liked your page. First is video. We've posted seven videos so far this year. They have garnered an average 10% engagement rate, and have reached an average of 22.6% of our fans: more than double the reach, on average, of our image posts with the same engagement.

The second type of post that seems to get good reach is the multi-image post, where fans are encouraged to click between the images to see the full content you've posted. We've posted seventeen such posts this year, and they've achieved an average 16.2% engagement rate and have reached an average of 14.6% of our fans per post. And yet this is discouraging in its own way. We had six multi-image posts that achieved at least 19% engagement. These posts reached, on average, 18% of our fans. Facebook has decided that even these all-star posts, interesting enough to engage a massive 20% of the people who saw them, aren't worth serving to 82% of the people who have self-declared as your fans.

So, if you're running a Facebook page for your company or your organization, what should you do? It seems to me you have three options, not mutually exclusive.

You can continue to work to make great content, and resign yourself to the reach of this content in most cases growing smaller over time. This has the advantage of being free, except for the opportunity costs and staff time of producing this content. Just adjust your expectations.

You can invest more significantly in video. A glance at your own Facebook feed should demonstrate that Facebook is interested in serving more video to its users as it focuses on cutting into YouTube's head-start in the video arena. These posts are typically somewhat more involved to make, but Facebook is rewarding them with greater reach.

Finally, you can pay to sponsor your posts. Even at relatively modest levels, doing so gives you much greater access to your fans and to those who you target, whether they be friends of your fans or others that fit specific demographics or interests. We've paid to promote four posts so far this year, and have had these posts served something like 5000 extra times for each $20 we've spent. Given that our average post is reaching something like 800 of our fans organically, if we were to choose to promote one post a week, at $20/post, we might be able to double the total number of views of our content at an annual cost of around $1000. That's hardly exorbitant.

Sadly, I don't see Facebook making changes that allow for a return to the conditions of a few years ago, where businesses and organizations could pay to acquire new fans, or to target connections of their fans, while taking access to those fans for granted. But given that there is no other social network that has remotely Facebook's user base, and that the changes that the company has made aren't likely to drive those users away, it's worth deciding the appropriate level of investment for your group to remain in the Facebook game. Sure, you can -- and should -- continue to post to Twitter and Instagram, but doing so is not a replacement for engaging the 1.2 billion active monthly users on Facebook. Just know that the era when a small businesses can treat Facebook as the centerpiece of a no-cost marketing plan is over, and it's not coming back.

By the end of last week, we'd seen significant budbreak at the tops of our hills among early sprouting varieties like Viognier, Syrah, Grenache Blanc and (below) Grenache.

Budbreak each year starts the clock ticking on the growing season. It typically happens between mid-March and mid-April, depending on how cold the winter has been, and more specifically the dates of our last hard freezes. Like 2014, this year saw cold weather early in the winter, but starting late January it's been unseasonably warm. We did see temperatures drop into the high 20's in our coldest spots a couple of weeks ago, but even those nights saw our hilltops comfortably above the freezing mark. To give you a sense of where 2015 fits within the context of recent years, I went back to look at when we first noted budbreak each of the last eight years:

2014: Mid-March2013: First week of April2012: Mid-April2011: First week of April2010: Last week of March2009: Second week of April2008: Last week of March2007: First week of April

So, we're more or less on track with last year, which was our earliest-ever recorded budbreak. Last year, because of how early things were, I wrote that we were dreading the frost season even more than normal. And this year is no different; we can have a frost here any time until mid-May, although every frost that has caused serious damage has come in April. But it's interesting to me to note that the two years in the last nine that have seen seriously damaging frosts (2009 and 2011) didn't come in years with unusually early budbreak. Hopefully, that bodes well for this year. The long-term forecast doesn't show anything particularly threatening frost-wise (though it also doesn't show any prospects for significant rain). But there's still a month at least of white-knuckle nights in store.

It's important to note that I had to trek to the top of our hill and look in specific varietal blocks to find budbreak. None of our Mourvedre, Roussanne, or Counoise vines are out, nor are even the most precocious varietals in low-lying areas, which did see early-March freezes. This gradient between the tops and bottoms of our hills will likely play out all the way through the growing season, as the earlier-sprouting areas will also see earlier flowering, earlier veraison, and earlier harvest.

But for now, budbreak is a hopeful thing: the beginning of a season of growth, and the beginning of our work that will come to define 2015 for us for years to come. Please join me in welcoming the 2015 vintage to Tablas Creek.

Typically, our blending weeks follow a consistent pattern. We start by tasting each lot, variety by variety, and giving them grades. [For an overview of our grading system, see this post by my dad from 2012.] This initial phase gives us an overview of the vintage's strengths and weaknesses, helps point out lots that need attention in the cellar, and suggests which lots are of a quality that they should be considered for the Esprit de Tablas. This year, the white tasting included 4 Viognier lots, 5 Grenache Blanc lots, 2 lots each of Picpoul Blanc and Marsanne, and 10 lots of Roussanne. My notes:

A good initial test of the vintage is the percentage of lots that receive our top grade (a "1" in this case). Somewhere around 40% is normal for us; this vintage I gave 13 of the 23 lots a "1" grade. The next thing I look at is what percentage of our total gallons of each grape get that top grade, which helps us know what the likely profile of our blends will be, and if there are lots whose friendliness and relative lack of depth suggest they're better suited for the Patelin than for our estate wines. This year, I gave "1" grades to 55% of our Roussanne, 72% of our Grenache Blanc, 23% of our Marsanne, 15% of our Viognier, and 100% of our Picpoul (I rated both of our lots a "1"). We did identify one Viognier lot for declassification into the Patelin Blanc. The lineup of lots, on the bar on Monday, and below it, our flight of 5 different Grenache Blancs:

Our next step is to blend the Esprit Blanc. We typically start from the outside and work our way in. We tasted blends between 60% and 80% Roussanne, 20% and 40% Grenache Blanc, and 0% and 10% Picpoul. It took us two days, but we came to the conclusion that as good as the Grenache Blanc and Picpoul were this year (and both were excellent), because of the good acidity on Roussanne -- often a low-acid grape -- we didn't need as much of the others as it might have at first appeared. We even toyed with the idea of eliminating Picpoul entirely and focusing on the richness of Roussanne and Grenache Blanc, but in the end decided that the tropical fruitiness of Picpoul, which came through appealingly even at just 5% of the final blend, was of value to the finished wine even if the acidity was OK without it. Our (tentatively) final Esprit Blanc blend: 72% Roussanne, 23% Grenache Blanc, and 5% Picpoul Blanc.

We then turned our focus to the Cotes Blanc, having removed from consideration the lots earmarked for the Esprit Blanc. This is typically an easier process, because we have fewer options in front of us. We knew at this point that because we had declassified one Viognier lot to Patelin, we weren't going to make a varietal Viognier. So, we knew the Viognier base that would form the core of the wine. Our questions were at that point to decide the relative proportions of the Grenache Blanc, Marsanne and Roussanne, and over two days, we decided to keep the Roussanne percentage low, both because we want the wine to be different from the Esprit, and because too much Roussanne, added to the rich Viognier base, seemed to make the wines too heavy. In the end, our chosen blend was 42% Viognier, 30% Grenache Blanc, 23% Marsanne, and 5% Roussanne.

The blending session also made clear that we'll have some knockout varietal wines this year, in pretty decent quantities. We decided against making a Viognier, but the Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, and Picpoul Blanc should all be terrific.

This was just the first of three blending weeks on our calendar. We'll reconvene week-after-next to repeat the process with the red lots, and then welcome Francois Perrin to the vineyard two weeks after that to get his take on everything we think we've decided. But even after just one week, it's clear that the raw materials are exceptional. I asked Neil to summarize his impressions of 2014 at this point, and his answer ("a lot of depth, and great acidity") is about as good a starting point as we could want.

It seems like progress in direct shipping goes in waves. There's a small flurry of movement, in states widely separated in geography and culture, and then a period when nothing much happens. Then, for whatever reason, progress starts back up.

About six weeks ago I wrote a post State of the Union, Wine Shipping Edition in which I broke down the 51 shipping destinations (50 states plus the District of Columbia) into ten tiers, based on the ease and cost of doing business in each. I could have written essentially the same article any time in the previous two years without necessitating significant changes (OK, there was one change: Montana became a shipping state in late 2013, but that was it). Yet the six weeks since I wrote my State of the Union have seen two major developments, with a couple of others seemingly in the works. Given that there aren't that many states still left that prohibit or severely curtail winery shipping (15, as of late January) that's a measurable blip. Let's look at them one by one.

Cheers to Massachusetts!We were thrilled when, late last year, the great state of Massachusetts passed a workable direct-shipping law (thanks, in part, to former New England Patriots quarterback-turned-vintner Drew Bledsoe). Although the law went into effect January 1st, 2015, it took the state a few weeks to process the flood of applications they received. But as of now, we can happily ship to residents of the Bay State, and they can sign up for our wine clubs. And after the winter they’ve had, it sounds like most of them need a drink!

A Bill Passes in South DakotaSouth Dakota was until very recently one of the states with the most curious collection of wine shipping laws. We couldn't ship wine there if we received an order, but only when someone made a purchase in-person at the winery. And even then, the shipment was subject to the state's individual out-of-state alcohol purchase transport limit of one gallon per instance. That's five bottles, maximum. But just two weeks ago, the governor signed into law House Bill 1001, which sets up a straightforward shipper's permit requiring that wineries remit taxes and periodic reports, and verify the legal age of the purchaser. Pretty standard stuff, for wine shipping, and only a moderate burden to wineries. The law will go into effect January 1st, 2016.

Progress in IndianaIndiana is another state that throws some interesting roadblocks in between wineries who wish to sell their wares in the state and Hoosier consumers who would like to purchase them. Right now, the state limits direct shipments to wineries who both take an initial order in-person at the winery, and don't have a relationship with a wholesaler in the state. The state differs from South Dakota in that only the initial order must be taken in person (not every order) but the wholesaler prohibition means that it's always been a no-go for us. In late January, the Indiana Senate passed Senate Bill 113, which would remove both the in-person requirement and the distributor prohibition, albeit at the expense of raising the winery shipping permit from $100/year to $500/year, which would make it one of the five most expensive in the country. Still, this would count as progress. The bill is now in committee in the Indiana House of Representatives.

Pennsylvania: Glimmers of HopeWith the passage of the direct shipping bill in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania (America's 10th-largest wine market) assumed the mantle of the largest wine market to prohibit winery-direct shipping. But readers familiar with Pennsylvania will understand why, despite a growing in-state wine industry, there are unusually strong forces that stand in the way. Pennsylvania is one of only two states (Utah is the other) where wine sales are restricted to state-run stores, and with more than 600 stores in the state system, the combination of massive revenue that the stores direct into state coffers and the influence of the state employees' union mitigates against rapid change. Still, the prospects for change seem brighter now than at any time in my memory. The new Governor Tom Wolf went on record in February saying "I'm in favor of direct shipping". The bill, however, that passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives last week looks to have limited prospects, because it moves faster than the Senate and Governor are comfortable with in privatizing the state stores. In any case, it seems like there is at least the possibility of movement in the Keystone State, although I'm not holding my breath.

Delaware: A Bill in the Works?Finally, one more small crack of daylight, albeit in one of the smallest states of the union. In November, Delaware House Minority Whip Deborah Hudson made winery direct shipping the focus of her weekly address, pointing out that Delaware was one of just 9 states that prohibit shipping to consumers and inviting her fellow legislators to "objectively weigh the facts and set aside the baseless fears of special interest groups, allowing our residents and Delaware wineries to join the 21st Century". Amen to that!

As always, the best place to find out what's going on in the direct shipping realm, and to learn how you can help, is Free the Grapes.

Normally, the sign at the edge of our head-trained Mourvedre vineyard just outside our tasting room is to protect people from a twisted ankle, should they stray off the tarmac. Now, we're worried we might lose them in the cover crop!

The growth in the vineyard's green winter coat over the last month has been amazing to watch. Whether because of the three dry years which preceded this one, or because of the work we've been doing with soil fertility, or because of the year's relative warmth (or some combination) we've never seen a cover crop so lush. Another view, looking up the hill behind the winery that we call Mt. Mourvedre:

Everything is growing. Yes, the cover crops that we planted are growing fast, but we're seeing lots of native grasses and wildflowers, like the mustards you see below:

The yellow of the mustard isn't the only hue on display. We're also seeing our sweet peas flowering:

And this pretty purple wildflower that grows low to the ground:

And it is wet. Although it hasn't rained much since the 3.9" we received the first weekend of February, the soils are still loaded with moisture, as evidenced by the ubiquity of the water-loving plant miner's lettuce, which we barely saw the last two winters:

And, if you needed more evidence, either of the wet soils or of the hazards of trekking into the vineyard, check out my shoes after this morning's photography trip:

Now, our chief worry shifts to early budbreak. We've been reading about it from nearby regions, and were frightened to see photographic evidence of it getting nearer from our neighbors at Adelaida Cellars over the weekend. We're typically a few weeks behind Adelaida and the other less-frosty vineyards at the tops of the hills to the east of us, and are still in a window where a few frosty nights would likely give us a reprieve rather than damage. But barring a freeze, we're on track for an earlier budbreak than last year, when its mid-March arrival led me to write the blog Why we're dreading the 2014 frost season.

Each spring and fall, we send out a selection of six wines to the members of our VINsider Wine Club. In many cases, these are wines that only go out to our club. In others, the club gets a first look at a wine that may see a later national release. An important pre-shipment event for us is the in-house tasting that we conduct, about 6 weeks before the club shipments will be sent out, to help us write the tasting and production notes that will be included in the club shipments. This tasting is often our first post-bottling introduction to wines that we'll come to know intimately in coming weeks and months. This time around, because these shipments include four wines that aren't yet even bottled (they will be next week), I found this get-to-know-you process particularly informative. My main take home message: that the 2013 and 2014 vintages are the best back-to-back vintages we've seen in our history.

This spring's classic shipment is as usual anchored by the Panoplie, our elite wine, dominated by Mourvedre and made from the most compelling, ageworthy lots in the cellar. To that, we've added three varietal wines: two white (2014 Vermentino and 2013 Grenache Blanc) and one red (2012 Tannat), as well as the newest vintage of our rich, vibrant Mourvedre-based Dianthus rosé, and perhaps the most surprising wine of the tasting for me: our 2013 Cotes de Tablas, led by Grenache.

I was joined for the tasting by my dad, and by our winemakers Neil Collins and Chelsea Franchi. First, our notes from the classic (mixed) shipment:

2014 VERMENTINO

Production Notes: Our thirteenth bottling of this traditional Mediterranean varietal, known principally in Sardinia, Corsica, and Northern Italy. It is also grown in the Mediterranean parts of France (particularly Côtes de Provence) where it is known as Rolle. The Vermentino grape produces wines that are bright, clean, and crisp, with distinctive citrus character and refreshing acidity. To emphasize this freshness, we ferment and age Vermentino in stainless steel, and bottle it in screwcap.

Tasting Notes: A classic chalky citrus leaf Vermentino nose, but then surprisingly mouth-filling, long and creamy, but with lots of great savory flavors of citrus pith, saline and wet stone. Great acids on the finish. Really nice, and classic for the Vermentino grape. Drink now and over the next few years.

Production: 1000 cases.

2013 GRENACHE BLANC

Production Notes: 2013 was a great year for Grenache Blanc, with solid quantity and remarkable quality concentrated by a second year of drought. For the varietal Grenache Blanc, we chose lots that were fermented in stainless steel (for brightness) and foudre (for roundness), then blended and bottled in the summer of 2014.

Tasting Notes: Solid and rich on the nose, with quince, baking spices, crystallized ginger and orange marmalade, elevated by a nice citrus blossom character. The mouth is broad and rich, with a touch of Grenache Blanc's signature tannin providing structure on the finish. The flavors were rich and broad, then clean: mimosa, lemon peel and anise. My dad called it "bracing" and "bold" which both seemed right on to me. Drink now and over the next few years.

Production: 700 cases.

2014 DIANTHUS

Production Notes: Our estate rosé is now in the third year under its Dianthus name, chosen for a family of plants with deep-pink flowers. A style between that of Tavel (deeper pink, based on Grenache) and Bandol (less skin contact, based on Mourvedre) this year's blend is heavy on Grenache, for us, at 46% Mourvèdre, 41% Grenache and 13% Counoise. The core of the Dianthus comes from a co-fermented lot from our nursery block, planted in 1994, supplemented by saignées (bleedings) from other Mourvèdre and Grenache lots. This is a deeply colored, flavorful rosé that shows the richness of the classic 2014 vintage. After roughly 24 hours on the skins, the fermentation was completed in stainless steel, and bottled in February 2015.

Tasting Notes: A gorgeous color, like fresh-pressed strawberry juice. The nose shows strawberries too (maybe that's why I thought of the color), watermelon, plum and rose petal. The mouth is rich, with great acids and a powerful floral jasmine element. The finish is long and clean. A rosé to convert people who think that pink wines can't be serious. Drink before the end of 2016.

Production: 1600 cases

2013 COTES DE TABLAS

Production Notes: The Cotes de Tablas is our chance to let Grenache shine, as it does in most Chateauneuf du Pape blends. 2013's drought-reduced yields and moderate growing season produced standout Grenache: juicy and powerful, but not sappy or candied. We blended 55% Grenache with 30% Syrah (for firm tannins, minerality and spice), 10% Counoise (for freshness and brambly wildness) and 5% Mourvedre (for earth and ageability). The wine was blended in June 2014 and aged in foudre until its bottling in February 2015.

Tasting Notes: We heard murmurs of "oh, boy" when people stuck their noses in this. An explosive minty nose of blueberry, licorice, black plum and pepper. There's powerful fruit on the front palate, then firming up with great tannins on the back. There's a luxurious texture, with nice granular tannins and a minty garrigue cooling and lingering on the finish. Just, wow. Neil declared it "as good a Cotes as we've ever made". I think he's understating things; I think it's the best. It's wonderful now, and I know much of it will be drunk in coming months, but I think it's got a decade of development.

Production: 1580 cases

2012 PANOPLIE

Production Notes: As always, Panoplie is selected from lots chosen in the cellar for their richness, concentration and balance, always heaviest on Mourvedre's rich meatiness and firm structure. Each lot was fermented individually before being selected, blended and moved to foudre to age in July 2013. The wine was bottled in August 2014 and has been aged in bottle in our cellars since then. The blend is 70% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache and 10% Syrah.

Tasting Notes: Rich, deep and meaty on the nose, cassis and new leather, with a wonderful note of violets that I found captivating. The mouth is textured, Mourvedre's signature rare steak character on the front-palate, then elegant and minerally in the mid-palate, showing cocoa powder and loam, with more currants and plums on the finish. A poised and approachable Panoplie, much more so than usual at this stage, more about elegance than sheer power, but that balance and the high percentage of Mourvedre should combine to give it two decades of life.

Production: 650 cases

2012 TANNAT

Production Notes: our ninth bottling of this traditional varietal from South-West France, known principally in the Pyrenees foothills appellation of Madiran, but originally native to the Basque region. Tannat typically has intense fruit, spice, and tannins that produce wines capable of long aging, and it is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon (in this vintage, 9%) to bring a hint of minty lift.

Tasting Notes: Easily the darkest wine on the table, a luminescent black-red. The aromas are nearly all savory: iron, tobacco, squid ink and wild herbs. Neil called it "the crusty end of a rib roast". On the palate, more bramble and underbrush, iron and dry-aged steak, black fig and baker's chocolate. The finish shows Tannat's signature tannins, smoke and mineral. A wine to watch evolve over decades.

Production: 1000 cases

There were three additional wines (joining the Vermentino and Grenache Blanc) in the white-only shipment:

2013 MARSANNE

Production Notes: The 2013 Tablas Creek Vineyard Marsanne is just our third varietal bottling of Marsanne, the noble white grape of France's Hermitage appellation. We use most of our Marsanne in our Cotes de Tablas Blanc each year. However, in 2013 we felt that the Marsanne was so complete and compelling, and so representative of the Marsanne grape, that we selected out one small lot, fermented in foudre for the first time, for a single-varietal bottling.

Tasting Notes: We worried that the often-subtle Marsanne would suffer after tasting the Tannat, but needn't have. The nose showed vibrant aromas of quince paste, clover honey and newly-laid straw. On the palate, an absolutely classic Marsanne, with preserved lemon, wheat, mineral and honeydew melon, great texture and a hint of tannin on the finish. Quite gorgeous, we all thought. Should drink well for the next five years, maybe longer.

Production: 235 cases

2013 COTES DE TABLAS BLANC

Production Notes: The Cotes de Tablas Blanc is our showcase for the floral, lush fruit of Viognier, given texture, acidity and restraint by the good acids and citrus of Grenache Blanc, and by the gentle minerality of Marsanne. The resulting blend is 39% Viognier, 29% Grenache Blanc, 20% Marsanne and 12% Roussanne, all aged in stainless steel.

Tasting Notes: Open-knit, compared to the Marsanne, with pear and nectarine and minty savory note that we variously identified as tarragon and key lime. The mouth was initially rich: peaches and cream from the Viognier, but bright and with nice minerality on the finish. Clean and compelling. Drink now and over the next few years.

Production: 1250 cases

2013 ROUSSANNE

Production Notes: 2013’s combination of intensity and juiciness was kind to the powerful and sometimes austere Roussanne grape, bringing lushness and openness to complement its characteristic structured profile. We fermented the Roussanne lots that were selected for our varietal bottling roughly 50% in foudre, 35% in small, older neutral oak barrels, and 15% in new demi-muids. The selected lots were blended in April 2014 then aged through the subsequent harvest before bottling in February 2015.

Tasting Notes: Not yet bottled, the 2013 Roussanne was the second vintage of our 100% Roussanne that we aged in foudre through the subsequent harvest, and we agreed that like the 2012, this wine showed the benefits of that longer elevage. Aromas of beeswax, lacquered wood, white flowers and yellow pear, with rich, broad flavors of honey and pear, some nicely integrated sweet oak, and a long, rich, slightly spicy finish. Appealing in its youth (moreso than many vintages of our Roussanne) but should also develop over the next decade.

Production: 700 cases

Two additional reds joined the Cotes de Tablas, Panoplie, and Tannat in the red-only shipment:

2013 PATELIN DE TABLAS

Production Notes: Patelin is French slang for "neighborhood" and the Patelin de Tablas is our wine sourced from our many great neighborhood Rhone vineyards. We base the wine on the spicy savoriness of Syrah, with Grenache providing juiciness and freshness, Mourvedre structure, and just a dash of Counoise. Fermented in a mix of upright oak fermenters and stainless steel tanks and aged in foudre and stainless steel, it was bottled in July 2014 and aged in bottle to round into its structure.

Tasting Notes: An appealing nose of chocolate, cherry, cranberry, mint and graphite, balanced between Syrah's savoriness and Grenache's juiciness. It's fresh, juicy and friendly on the palate, with Grenache's signature purple fruit and Syrah's minerality and spice. Some nice chalky tannins on the finish frame the wine and suggest that for all its approachability, it will develop additional complexity over the next 5+ years.

Production: 5900 cases

2012 FULL CIRCLE

Production Notes: 2012 is the third vintage of our Full Circle Pinot Noir, grown on the small vineyard outside Robert Haas's family home in Templeton, in the cool (for Paso) newly-approved Templeton Gap AVA. Its name reflects his career: from a start introducing America to the greatness of Burgundy, through decades focusing on grapes from the Rhone, he's now growing Pinot at home. The grapes were fermented in one-ton microfermenters, punched down twice daily by hand. After pressing, the wine was moved into year-old Marcel Cadet 60-gallon barrels, for a hint of oak. The wine stayed on its lees, stirred occasionally, for a year and a half before being blended and bottled in April 2014.

Tasting Notes: The nose is smoky red cherry, with leather, milk chocolate, and chaparral. The mouth is dark and compelling (Chelsea called it "sultry" and "jazz lounge") with nice grippy tannins that clean up the richness and suggest a good life ahead. Sun and forest and fresh berries: a great warm climate expression of Pinot Noir. Drink over the coming decade.

Production: 350 cases

If you're a wine club member, you should make your reservation for our shipment tasting party, where we open all the wines in the most recent club shipment for VINsiders to try. This spring's party will be on Sunday, April 9th. If you're not a wine club member, and you've read all this way, then why not join up, while there's still a chance to get this spring shipment? Details and how to join are at tablascreek.com/wine_club/vinsider_club

And yet, with reported temperatures in the 80s around California, our highs here the last few days have topped out in the low-60s. The local temperature map from Weather Underground from this afternoon illustrates (click to enlarge):

Notice the gradient: 80 in Santa Maria. 79 in San Luis Obispo. 77 in the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains just south of Monterey. Heck, it's 73 in Cambria, just over the mountains from us. But Paso Robles is just 64 degrees. This pattern -- warm on the coasts and the inland areas open to the Pacific, but cooler in more inland climates like ours -- is normal in the winter, and often overlooked when people discuss the climate here.

This difference, already dramatic enough in the afternoon, is even more pronounced in the nights and early mornings. We typically see 20-30 frost nights a year here in Paso, while San Luis Obispo sees only a few. Here, you see apples, grapes, and other crops that benefit from full dormancy planted, while when you go over the mountains to the coast, you see citrus and avocado groves. It's routine for me to get up into foggy, low-40's winter mornings and drive down to San Luis, where it's in the 60's and sunny.

Why does all this matter for us? Because the beginning of the grape growing season is determined by the accumulated heat during the winter. Last year, after a warm start to 2014, regions in more moderated climates (think Edna Valley, or the Santa Lucia Highlands) saw an exceptionally early start to their growing season. This led to a growing cycle that began in February, with veraison in June and harvests that began, in some cases, in July. Yes, our early 2014 was warm compared to normal, but we didn't see anything like this. From last year's post Veraison in June? Not so fast, in Paso Robles at least:

How close were we to a similarly early start? I'd point to the nights of February 4th and 5th, both of which got down to 29 degrees here. That doesn't sound like much, but it meant that even with the warm weather that followed, our budbreak didn't start until mid-March. The more coastal regions didn't get a frost after December, and I remember driving through the Santa Maria Valley in the second half of February and marveling that their vines were already showing green.

If you needed more evidence, our winter cool is just another way in which Paso has cool climate aspects as well as warm. It's warm, in summer (but cold in the winter). It's hot, during the day (but cold at night). It's exactly this dichotomy that we loved when we settled here: this balance between the elements that bring sweet fruit and rich texture (the California sun, our warm days, and our long growing season) and those that maintain our savory notes and our freshness (the cold nights and winters, and our altitude).

Just when you think you have Paso Robles pigeonholed, it offers something new. Plan your next trip for winter, if you don't believe me.

Last year, I debuted a weekly feature on the blog called Weekly Roundup, focusing on interesting news from our communities (Rhone and Paso Robles), fun articles that we'd found on the world of wine, and pieces from other social media channels that we thought would interest a wider audience.

Unfortunately, the series never got a lot of traction. I didn't hear much feedback about it, we didn't get many comments (1, in all the articles) and it didn't get shared or clicked on all that much when we posted it. And it was a fair amount of work to do each week, some of which frankly didn't have all that much that was exciting going on in our community. So, I've decided to rechristen this as a roughly monthly endeavor, and make its focus more explicitly on our community. So, please welcome the Community Roundup: an occasional foray into what else is going on in our world. These are things that we think are sufficiently noteworthy and of interest to our audience to be worth sharing, but maybe less than a full post each.

And please continue to share your own feedback on this series in the comments section. Is it something that you've enjoyed and would like to continue to see? Are there areas that you'd like to see more of? Thanks in advance!

Two Awards for Two Iconic Figures This week, we've been pleased to hear that two industry veterans for whom we have enormous respect are receiving major awards.

The first is Stephan Asseo, whose desire to combine the strengths of Bordeaux and the Rhone introduced a new kind of fusion into Paso Robles. Stephan began making wine in 1982, and for the next 15 years developed a formidable reputation in Bordeaux. Looking to escape the restrictions of France's appellation controlee system, he came to Paso Robles, where he founded L'Aventure Winery in 1998. His work in the seventeen years since has played a major role in establishing Paso Robles as the home for some of the most innovative garagiste winemakers in California, and brought to prominence the "Paso Blend", combining grapes from different Old World traditions into something uniquely Paso. We are excited to learn that Stephan will be presented with the 2015 Wine Industry Person of the Year award from the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance. Photo (right) is from the L'Aventure Facebook page.

The second award recipient is Bob Lindquist, whose pioneering work at Qupe Winery was one of our inspirations, showing since 1982 that great Rhone varieties could be made in California's Central Coast. Bob, throughout his time at Qupe, has been a tireless advocate for the wines of the Rhone, and a generous, patient, and humble figure in the movement. He doesn't ever call attention to himself, which is one of the joys of his receiving only the third-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhone Rangers: that he'll get some richly deserved time in the limelight. My dad received this award last year, and the ceremony was great. If you missed it, I wrote a blog after that includes the amazing tribute video presented at his ceremony. If you're interested in joining for the celebration, you can; Bob's award will be presented at the Rhone Rangers San Francisco Winemaker Dinner. Photo (right) is from the Qupe Web site.

Snow in the RhoneThe Famille Perrin Instagram account is chock-full of great images, but one really stuck out this past week. Snow isn't exactly a rarity in the Rhone Valley; they get a dusting at some point most years, but heavy snow is. The photo that they shared of Gigondas under a heavy white blanket was stunning:

New Direct Shipping OpportunitiesEarlier in January, I wrote a long piece on the state of wine shipping in the United States. It wasn't really germane to the article -- which dealt more with the levels of expense and regulation within the three-dozen shipping states -- but it seems like there's been a little flurry of opportunity in opening some of the roughly dozen states that still prohibit all wine shipping. Not only is Massachusetts set to open any day now, but the South Dakota legislature is debating a viable shipping bill, as is Indiana, and I've been hearing rumors that Pennsylvania is likely to move on wine shipping before the end of the year. As always, the best place to go is Free the Grapes, where you can learn what's being debated and use their built-in templates to write state legislatures.

Drink for Thought: Wine State or Beer State?

I'm a sucker for maps. There were several interesting ones, including the one above, in the Washington Post's article Do you live in beer country or wine country? These maps will tell you. The take-home message for me was that where there are wineries, there are likely breweries too. Of course, there are hotspots where one or the other dominates, but fewer than you might think. This is why I've found the reported worry in some corners of the wine community over the rise of craft beer silly. In general, the people who love good wine love good beer, and increasingly, vice versa. And more importantly, the people who love interesting wine look for interesting beer. Nowhere more so than winery cellars. The old adage that "it takes lots of good beer to make good wine" is absolutely true, in my experience. Cheers!